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About the Jehovah's Witnesses Christian denomination

Past opposition to vaccinations

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Banning vaccinations:

An early leader of the Jehovah's Witnesses, C. J. Woodworth,
maintained a continuing opposition to vaccinations. He seems to have believed
that vaccination caused animal blood cells to be injected into humans. This he
regarded as equivalent to eating blood, an activity that the group beieves is forbidden in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).
The group banned their members from having vaccinations from 1931 to 1952. An
unknown number of Witnesses were disfellowshipped because they disobeyed their
leaders on this matter.

The following condemnations of vaccination were published in the Jehovah's
Witnesses' periodical, The Golden Age, from 1921 to 1935. This
magazine was first published in 1919:

"Vaccination never prevented anything and never will, and is the most
barbarous practice...We are in the last days; and the devil is slowly losing
his hold, making a strenuous effort meanwhile to do all the damage he can, and
to his credit can such evils be placed...Use your rights as American citizens
to forever abolish the devilish practice of vaccinations." 1

"The public is not generally aware of how large an industry is the
manufacture of serums, anti-toxins and vaccines, or that big business controls
the whole industry. . . . the boards of health endeavor to start an epidemic
of smallpox, diphtheria, or typhoid that they may reap a golden harvest by
inoculating an unthinking community for the very purpose of disposing of this
manufactured filth." 2

"Thinking people would rather have smallpox than vaccination, because
the latter sows seeds of syphilis, cancers, eczema, erysipelas, scrofula,
consumption, even leprosy and many other loathsome affections. Hence the
practice of vaccinations is a crime, an outrage, and a delusion." 3

"Vaccination is a direct violation of the everlasting covenant that God
made with Noah after the flood." 4

"As vaccination is a direct injection of animal matter in the blood
stream, vaccination is a direct violation of the law of Jehovah God." 5

"Vaccination is a direct violation of the holy law of Jehovah God… I
have no alternative. I must obey Jehovah’s law." 6 This
articlequoted court testimony of Maria Braught.

The name of the publication The Golden Age was changed to Consolation in 1937. Finally, it became Awake! in 1946 -- the name that continues to the present day.
In 1939, the following passage appeared:

"Oh, yes, serums vaccines, toxins, inoculations, are all 'harmless,'
because the man who is selling them says so. You, my friends, believe this
LIE, and continue to submit your body to these violations; then all I can say
is, 'God have mercy on your soul'…. All vaccination is unphysiological a crime
against nature." 7

C.J. Woodworth's prime objection to vaccination is that the serum was derived
from "animal filth" that would pollute humanity. He implied that it
caused various diseases like the Spanish Flu. It also led to a lessening of
recipients' mental capacity and triggered sexual immorality. He wrote:

"...much looseness of our day along sexual lines may be traceable to
the easy and continual violation of the divine commands to keep human and
animal blood apart from each other. With cells of foreign blood racing through
his veins a man is not normal, not himself, but lacks the poise and balance
which makes for self control." 8

Ruling reversal:

Early 1940s: The policy of the Jehovah's Witnesses towards vaccination seems to
have changed during the 1940s.

"...Of the approximately 4,300 American Witnesses who were in
prison as conscientious objectors [during World War II], "only a small minority
concentrated in one prison refused to submit to the vaccinations [which were]
compulsory for all inmates."

According to A.H, Macmillan, a WTS leader
at the time:

"...our boys...considered [vaccinations] the same as blood transfusions..."

He
intervened with the prisoners and convinced them that there were no scriptural
objections to vaccination. 9

1952: The official teaching of the denomination changed. They published a question from "G.C." of North Carolina, in the Question
from Readers section of The Watchtower. G.C. asked:

"Is vaccination a violation of God's law forbidding the taking of blood
into the system?"

Their response was:

"The matter of vaccination is one for the individual that has to face it
to decide for himself....And our Society cannot afford to be drawn into the
affair legally or take the responsibility for the way the case turns out."

The WTS seems to have feared legal repercussions in the event that they
continued to recommend that members avoid vaccinations.

The Watchtower response also stated:

"After consideration of the matter,
it does not appear to us to be in violation of the everlasting covenant made
with Noah, as set down in Genesis 9:4, nor contrary to God's related commandment
at Leviticus 17:10-14. Most certainly it cannot reasonably or Scripturally be
argued and proved that, by being vaccinated, the inoculated person is either
eating or drinking blood and consuming it as food or receiving a blood
transfusion. Vaccination does not bear any relationship to or any likeness to
the intermarriage of angelic "sons of God" with the daughters of men, as
described in Genesis 6:1-4. Neither can it be put in the same class as described
at Leviticus 18:23-24, which forbids the mingling of humans with animals. It has
nothing to do with sex relations." 10

This easing of the prohibition on vaccination came just in time. Mass
vaccination campaigns against polio essentially wiped out the dread disease between 1955
and 1967, at least in North America.

The past prohibition against vaccination were based on the following biblical passages:

Genesis 9:4:

Leviticus 17:10-14:

Genesis 6:1-4:

Leviticus 18:23-24:

1961: The Jehovah's Witnesses took a neutral stand on vaccination; they neither
endorsed nor prohibited the practice. They wrote:

"As to the use of vaccines and other substances that may in some way
involve the use of blood in their preparation, it should not be concluded that
the Watch Tower Society endorses these and says that the practice is right and
proper. However, vaccination is a virtually unavoidable practice in many
segments of modern society, and the Christian may find some comfort under the
circumstances in the fact that this use is not in actuality a feeding or
nourishing process, which was specifically forbidden when God said that man was
not to eat blood, but it is a contamination of the human system." 11

1993: The following message appeared in Awake! magazine:

"Previous
articles in this journal and its companion, The Watchtower, have presented a
consistent position: It would be up to the Bible-trained conscience of the
individual Christian as to whether he would accept [vaccinations] for himself
and his family." 12,13

In view of their powerfully negative statements against
vaccination cited above from the Golden Age magazine, the 1993
statement appears to be in error. However, strictly speaking, it is correct,
because the attacks on vaccination were published when the Awake! magazine
was called by a different name: The Golden Age.

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Promoting vaccination:

1965: The Awake! magazine stated that: "There can be little doubt that
vaccinations appear to have caused a marked decrease in contagious diseases." 14

1996:Awake! reported, without any moral or religious criticism, on
the success of vaccination programs:

"In the world's developed countries,
new vaccines dramatically decreased the toll of measles, mumps, and German
measles. A mass polio vaccination campaign, launched in 1955, was so
successful that cases of the disease in Western Europe and North America
plummeted from 76,000 in that year to fewer than 1,000 in 1967. Smallpox, a
major killer disease, was eradicated worldwide." 15

1997: The Awake! magazine described the use of
the BCG vaccine. The article was also free of any religious or ethical
comments. They wrote:

"It prevents severe TB in children but does
little for adolescents and adults. At best, the vaccination gives protection
for about 15 years. BCG only protects those who are uninfected; it does not
benefit people who are already infected." 16

Consequences:

The decision of whether to
vaccinate themselves or their family is currently a decision made by the individual Witness.

Many anti-Jehovah's Witness web sites and publications ask the ethical
question: how many Witnesses died needlessly in the early to mid 20th century
because they were influenced by their faith group to refrain from vaccinating themselves
and their families.

A second concern is the number of times that infected
Witnesses spread diseases to other people in the first half of the 20th century.

Finally, there is the topic of "herd immunity." When a large percentage of the population is immune to a disease as a result of vaccination, then the virus or bacterium have difficulty finding an unvaccinated person to infect. Over time, the disease disappears. The refusal of Jehovah's Witnesses in the past to be vaccinated and to have their families vaccinated may have delayed herd immunity. However, this would have been a minor effect, because the denomination has always had relatively few members.

We have been unable to find answers to these questions -- not even crude estimates. But there is little doubt but that the leaders of the WTS have blood on their hands because of the deaths of unvaccinated members and their families.

The comment made in 1961, above, concerning vaccination stated that:

"... this use is not in actuality a feeding or
nourishing process, which was specifically forbidden when God said that man was
not to eat blood." 11

That comment could conceivably be built upon at some time in the future to revise the WTS' belief about blood transfusions. Such transfusions do not involve feeding, nourisihing or eating and thus might not violate the prohibition about eating animal or bird meat with the blood still in it. Such prohibitions are found in Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:26, & 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16, 12:23/24, 15:23, 1 Samuel 14:32 & 14:33; Exekiel 33:25; and Acts 15:20.17